Behind the Mirror / Za zrcadlem (programme from the performance)
A ZULU Cabaret, a Little Music of the Darkness, and the Aesthetic of Toys (Taneční sezona 3/99)
Africans, Their People of Prague Understand Them (MF Dnes May 5, 1999)

Photos from the performance





Behind the Mirror / Za zrcadlem

An Ethnic Vaudeville
A collaborative performance of Czech and South African artists.

Premiere - May 3, 1999
Next performances - May 4, 5, 6 and 7, 1999

Performing: Agatha Madinane, Petr Nikl, Victor Thabiso Mopahi, Jana Svobodová, Madoda Manana, Eva Pospíšilová, Innocent Mandla Xhosa, Lenka Vychodilová, Michael Manana, Karel Váňa
Set and costumes: Petr Nikl
Music: Vojtěch and Irena Havels, songs and rhythms of Africa
Concept and direction: Petr Nikl and Jana Svobodová

After Archa Theatre's successful production of "In the Mirror" (V zrcadle), last year, and following the workshops conducted in Johannesburg, the group of South African artists return to the Archa Theatre, to continue in their collective work with Petr Nikl, Jana Svobodová, Vojtěch and Irena Hovels and other Czech artists.
          This performance receives the title "Behind the Mirror". This time, one can expect the performance will not only be about the "reflections of story-book pictures", as it was last year, but that the creation of the performance will try to go further, deeper into the roots and contact points of African and European mythology. The sub-title "An Ethnic Vaudeville" indicates that this staging will also not be very serious, and that what is most important is the joy that comes before the meeting.
          It is a play with objects, puppets and shadows. It connects scenic pictures and music. It balances on the border between humor and melancholy. A unity of difference. It is the world "Behind the Mirror". In this world, the colour of the skin is perceived only as the creation of the elements.

In collaboration with the South African Embassy in Prague.
The Archa Theatre would like to thank KLM, Prague and Johannesburg, Cecile van Straten, Bie Venter, the Continents and the Radio Limonádový Joe.
Special thanks to Fontána for the lending of the unusual musical instruments.





A ZULU Cabaret, a Little Music of the Darkness, and the Aesthetic of Toys

The ethnic-cabaret, "Behind the Mirror", was only one of the continuing collaboration of a group of South African actors and dancers with theatre artists from our own country. Last year, the Archa Theatre presented the performance of "Solstice" as an experiment of non-traditional stage improvisations, creative visualisations, and performances of original live music. Objects, masks, costumes created by the leading Czech designer Petr Nikl (recipient of the Jindřich Chalupecký award of visual arts), stage improvisations of the dancers, as well as the music of the multi-instrumentalists, Irena and Vojtěch Havel; everything together creates a story, a fairy tale spoken in such a way that it could be understood without the use of any language.

The performance, "Behind the Mirror", had a mystic atmosphere, which as a result created an element of an enigma and a conspiring character in the performance. The literalness of this particular work, that has no "language", but has only the implication of a story: about a royal couple, who desperately waited for a child; about Weird sisters and a small larva; it is the universality of the language of fairy tales and the appearance of the mythical value in the play. The performance of "Behind the Mirror" isn't a common theatre performance for children. It is a confrontation of rituals, in which it presents everything that we know, and even that which we have forgotten. On the stage, the people dance, using their own joyous spontaneity, their appetite for performing and celebrating, their talent of performing. The African actors have a huge sense of rhythm and self-irony, and a magical strength in their voices.
          The performance of "Behind the Mirror" is the next celebration of the meeting between African and Czech theatre artists. Last year's production, performed under the title "In the Mirror", was, at that time, only the first possibility of collaboration.
          In Johannesburg, two years ago, the Czech artists conducted a puppet workshop.
          They knew that the African theatre is going through a phase that is more or less looking for its own identity. Over there, the majority of their characteristics for the stage is led by their ideas which are directed against the colonialists. This meeting, workshop and even the performance is a new experience for both sides: for the South African guests, as well as for our own artists. It ceases to be important to know who is who during the performance, as all elements together create some kind of new uncustomary type of theatre. It isn't just that the black dancers bring their appetite of a foreign ethnicity to the stage, but thanks to this, they create a space which brings a new stage exploration. And so the shadow play, the puppets, the African songs, the black skin, the white skin and the minimalistic music, all builds a new, specific, unusual aesthetic.
It is even possible to take in this performance of "Behind the Mirror" as a completed piece of visual art.

Anna Irmanovová, Taneční sezona 3/99





Africans, Their People of Prague Understand Them

Another year has come and the group of South African performers have returned to Prague ´s Archa Theatre to prepare yet another project inspired by fairy tales and the world of mythology. Once again, they have come together with their Czech colleagues, visual artist and performer Petr Nikl and musicians Vojtěch Havel and Irena Havlová - and the staging of the ethno-cabaret, Behind the Mirror, was borne. In the same manner as last year's European/African collaboration, this year's performance was not about the continuous narration of a story. One can find some individual motifs in this performance (such as "Seven Mile Shoes" and "The Little Mill" which forces everyone to dance), but it is more about the feelings, images, emotions and moods than about the exact order of events.
The music of Irena and Vojtěch Havel, played on the piano, cello and different percussion instruments, organically penetrates to the melodies of the Black continent - one can feel the mutual experience. Yet another musical instrument is the language of Zulu, which is used during the performance: there are sounded only a few Czech words. Petr Nikl keeps his fantasy on a bridle, contrary to last -year's performance of "In The Mirror", which had more colour and included more mysterious-moving objects. He cut out most of his "toy-playing" with various things and puppets, thus forcing the attention of spectators to concentrate on the artists. The actors change by using different costumes and props - sometimes changing into very bizarre creatures. For example, they are decorated by wigs; sometimes their movement becomes slower, and the details and entire composition becomes more expressive.
In this ethno-vaudeville, the culture of fairy tales and stories which are narrated, sung and danced next to the campfire, communicate together absolutely naturally.
You can taste one magic-theatre picture, full of colours, sounds and smells that were created in the Archa Theatre until Friday.

Zdeněk A. Tíchý, MF Dnes May 5, 1999